Video: Creating your first style

The beauty of Word styles is that not only do they save you lots and lots of time--as we saw in a previous movie-- but they are also very easy to create. I've used Word since the first version was released, and for years I was convinced that creating styles not only took a lot of time, but was under the impression that they were very difficult to create as well. It took a very long time to convince me just how easy it was, until someone who actually used them in their daily workflow sat down and showed me.

Learn how to use Word styles to help save time in creating consistent and well-designed documents. Author Mariann Siegert demonstrates how to create, apply, and modify styles, as well as how to format documents with styles. The course also covers generating tables of contents, building Quick Styles and style sets, and restricting styles in protected documents.

Creating your first style

The beauty of Word styles is that not only do they save you lots and lots oftime--as we saw in a previous movie-- but they are also very easy to create.I've used Word since the first version was released, and for years I wasconvinced that creating styles not only took a lot of time, but was under theimpression that they were very difficult to create as well.It took a very long time to convince me just how easy it was, until someone whoactually used them in their daily workflow sat down and showed me.

So let me show you just how easy it is by creating a style of our own.Although there are many ways to create a style, one of the easiest ways is tocreate a style by example.By example simply means to first apply all of your formatting directly and thentell Word to use your example to create a new style.So let's get started.The first step is to create our example to use as our style,so I'll apply a first-line indent to the very first paragraph by pressing the Tab key.

Now, I need to apply space after.Underneath the Paragraph, I'll go up to the button that says Line andParagraph Spacing and click.Down at the bottom of this menu, you'll see Add Space After Paragraph.Click and we've added our space.This paragraph also needs to be justified.So underneath the Paragraph, click on the Justify button, and now we have our example.So our second step is to tell Word that we want to use this example tocreate our own style.

Make sure that your cursor is somewhere within the first paragraph.Since we are creating a paragraph style, we simply have to be within theparagraph for Word to recognize how the paragraph is formatted and recognize theformatting attributes applied.Now, we'll open up our Styles window by clicking on the More button.Down at the very bottom of this window, you'll see New Style.Click once, and we'll give it a name.Let's call it First Indent Body Text.

Now, click OK, and that's it. Congratulations!You've just created your first style. It's that easy.Notice that the new style is now at the top of your Styles window, and here itis, Body Text First Indent.So you can see how easy it is to create a style.Let's see how easy it is to apply it to our document.We could continue going through our document and applying an indent and space after.But now we have a much easier way.

Let's select our entire document by using the keystroke Ctrl+A. That will selecteverything in your document.I remember this keystroke by thinking "Ctrl+All" instead of Ctrl+A. Now, let'sapply the First Indent Body Text style.All you need to do is click, and that's it; your entire document is now formattedwith your new style.We still have a little work to do on the document, but the majority is done.Styles can save a lot of time and they are also very easy to create and to apply.

Coming up in the following movies, we'll explore styles in much more detail.

Learn by watching, listening, and doing, Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along Premium memberships include access to all exercise files in the library.

Already a member ?

Learn by watching, listening, and doing! Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along. Exercise files are available with all Premium memberships.
Learn more

Upgrade to our Annual Premium Membership today and get even more value from your lynda.com subscription:

“In a way, I feel like you are rooting for me. Like you are really invested in my experience, and want me to get as much out of these courses as possible this is the best place to start on your journey to learning new material.”— Nadine H.

Thanks for signing up.

We’ll send you a confirmation email shortly.

Sign up and receive emails about lynda.com and our online training library:

new course releases

newsletter

general communications

special notices

Here’s our privacy policy with more details about how we handle your information.

Keep up with news, tips, and latest courses with emails from lynda.com.

Sign up and receive emails about lynda.com and our online training library:

new course releases

newsletter

general communications

special notices

Here’s our privacy policy with more details about how we handle your information.